A Pitched Debate: Clinton Hears It From Her Rivals  —  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York came under withering attack from the rest of the Democratic presidential field last night in a pitched two-hour debate that her opponents used to challenge her candor and electability and to portray …

UFOs and Alien Life  —  In the weird last minutes of the debate (the period, by the way, when The Fix made it onto the basketball court in high school) Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) gave us a highlight.  —  Asked about the statement by actress Shirley MacLaine that Kucinich had seen a UFO at her house, Kucinich said that he had.

Cross-dressing state lawmaker blackmailed following late night tryst  —  SPOKANE — State Representative Richard Curtis says he's not gay, but police reports and court records indicate the Republican lawmaker from southwestern Washington dressed up in women's lingerie and met a Medical Lake man …

Supreme Court Stays Execution in a Sign of a Broader Halt  —  Moments before a Mississippi prisoner was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, the Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution and thus gave a nearly indisputable indication that a majority intends to block …

Mukasey Losing Democrats' Backing  —  Nominee Unsure If Waterboarding Breaks Torture Law  —  Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is "repugnant to me," but he said he does not know whether …

Tax law: Are you eating those pumpkins?  —  DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Department of Revenue is taxing jack-o'-lanterns this Halloween.  The new department policy was implemented after officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed …

Live Debate Blogging  —  Diplomacy, diplomacy and also diplomacy.  Did I mention diplomacy?  —  9:25 PM ... Hillary "I will do everything I can" to prevent from Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.  Good answer.  —  9:26 PM ... Obama: We cannot act as if we are the weakest nation in the world when we are the strongest.

University of Delaware Requires Students to Undergo Ideological Reeducation  —  The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university's own materials as a "treatment" for students' incorrect attitudes and beliefs.

NGRs = Not Gay Republicans  —  Unsolicited advice from TPM to closeted Republican politicians: if you offer to pay a guy $1000 to have sex with you, don't try to wriggle out of paying the thousand dollars.  —  More advice: if you get into a payment dispute with the guy you paid to have sex with you …

Surveillance Sanity  —  Companies that help protect the U.S. against attack deserve immunity from frivolous lawsuits.  —  Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to target al Qaeda communications into and out of the country.

Post-Islamism  —  The future of Islamic reform lies with post-Islamism - a recognition that politics rather than religion provides for welfare in this life.  —  There is universal consensus that Muslim dictatorships, supported by the west, are the root of evil.

U.S. and Pakistan: A Frayed Alliance  —  As Military Efforts Falter, Trust Suffers  —  Five years ago, elite Pakistani troops stationed near the border with Afghanistan began receiving hundreds of pairs of U.S.-made night-vision goggles that would enable them to see and fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the dark.